Dr May van Schalkwyk, a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh and expert in corporate tactics, said: “The evidence is clear. Industries whose products are undermining the health and wellbeing of children and young people fund harmful youth education programmes as part of their corporate strategies. Urgent action is needed to prevent this form of influence and conflicts of interest”.
How much of an expert is she? Enough that you’d take a class with her to work out how to do it?
Or not that much of an expert?
I see cranks like Tulleken are still dishonestly pretending that alcohol is a poison with no safe level of consumption.
Having said that, why is any school using sponsored materials from any source? And why are they teaching children how to serve wine? Don’t they have parents?
I’m somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of businesses producing stuff for school children. Not because I have any problem with the alcohol industry but more that well, of course it’s going to lean towards being propaganda for the alcohol industry. They aren’t doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. And I would say this about any industry supplying materials for schools.
And this shouldn’t happen. The only reason it happens is that the McDonalds or Ladbrokes produces materials and government doesn’t. Despite us forking over a ton of money to educate kids. This isn’t McDonalds sponsoring a free kids show on YouTube which can’t run without that. It’s not expensive to produce leaflets, booklets, websites at the scale of a million kids per year.
It’s the same as this thing you’ll hear about teachers doing lesson plans. We have a national curriculum, a million kids are going to learn about the Tudors or trigonometry. The upside of that should be that you can create a process around it.
It will be interesting to see how many “Universities” with “Business Schools” become effectively insolvent over the next few years.
Is it squeezing out the gay and trans material that the state endorses by inaction? Shouldn’t that be regulated too?
An “expert on corporate tactics” writing in the Graun? I think I can guess her general opinions. I wonder what she thinks of the Scott Trust’s corporate tactic of domiciling in a tax haven? Oh, yes, silly me. It’s OK when we do it, because we’re Good People™.
Oh, and I wonder how many prescriptions she’s written with her doctorate? Oh yes, silly me, she’s just an ignorant, opinionated “academic”.
Any “Expert” featured in the Groan, isn’t.
The true Experts would be working for the Thing the Groan is ranting about this time.
‘They aren’t doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.’
They are doing it to counter government action, like University of Edinburgh.
Schalkwyk is anti free speech. She doesn’t dispute any claim; she wants a categorical ban. The lazy pig can get any school document banned by showing the staff that it is incorrect. She attacks the source, not the documents.
‘Dozens of doctors, health charities and public health specialists have written to the education secretary warning her that such firms are sponsoring resources used in lessons with pupils, despite them misrepresenting the evidence about diets, alcohol and betting.’
Blanket ban. They refute nothing.
‘to stop schools using educational materials funded by the food, drink and gambling industries, in order to protect children from “harmful” influences.’
How does one harmfully influence children on alcohol? They can’t have any. Period.
My experience was that of being on an advisory committee for a program at a college.
The program was a one year accelerated program to produce web developers. I was on there as someone who worked in the industry, and they were interested in hearing what would be useful to teach that the usual program didn’t.
My largest contribution was insisting on teaching them source control.
Some years later when the committee also included graduates of the program, they said that was one of the things that gave them a leg up.
So industry can provide useful feedback. They are right that it can also be slanted though.
The coalition of 58 health experts, groups and academics wants Phillipson to adopt the same tough approach as the Republic of Ireland. In 2022 its government told schools not to use materials in the classroom that had been funded by the alcohol industry or other “parties with conflicts of interest”.
What about these 58 health experts – any COI there?
I won’t wait for the answer.
What Reform needs to do urgently is look at these type of academics and simply defund their departments an amount equivalent to their salaries – wimple and effective. If the University of Edinburgh thinks she’s worth it ask them in relation to what?
What Reform needs to do is privatise the whole fucking higher education sector. Sell each institution to its current management at £1 a time, and walk away. Wind up every “research” granting quango, all “research” should be sponsored by the private sector.
The universities can be funded by their fees. Abolish the fee cap. Let each institution handle its own discounts for the less-well-off. Assign all current and future student loans to the relevant institution, they can chase up the payments.
Each institution is now the master of its own destiny. It can sink or swim.
“expert”
As always, Jordan’s Law applies: If you’re so smart, how come you ain’t rich?
‘The coalition of 58 health experts, groups and academics wants Phillipson to adopt the same tough approach as the Republic of Ireland.’
Why 58?
“If I were wrong, it would only take one.” — Einstein
” expert in corporate tactics”
What the fuck is that?
Reading her profile makes a number of things very clear
1) she is collecting all kinds of buzzwords the left like. ” the impacts of trade and Brexit on public health” or “research on the tobacco, alcohol, gambling, fossil fuels, opioid, pesticide and firearm industries.”
2) her research starts with an answer: “Her research aims to explain how commercial actors influence ideas, knowledge, science and policymaking”. This is not science
Dr May van Schalkwyk
From the photos it appears that “she” is terminologically inexact
Dr May van Schalkwyk
Is that Dutch for scallywag?